Cement ships able to berth again at Westport

GREYMOUTH - Cement firm Holcim's maritime woes look to be over after Westport harbour was reopened yesterday for ships laden with cement.

The harbour had been closed to cement ships for 48 days because of low harbour bar depths caused by a shortage of rainfall.

The harbour was too shallow for ships to navigate safely, which meant Holcim was unable to ship cement from its Cape Foulwind works near Westport.

Holcim cement general manager Jeremy Smith today said nature had removed some 70,000 cubic tonnes of sand and gravel at the rivermouth overnight early last week.

Big seas meant although the bar was clear, ships could not get in until yesterday, when a medium size load of 1900 tonnes departed.

"We brought the ship across in a depth of 2.5 metres (of water)," Mr Smith said.

Holcim was hopeful river flows would remain up, allowing the next cement ship to berth on Thursday.

The shipping woes forced Holcim to buy cement from rival Golden Bay Cement, which is owned by Fletcher Building. It had also sent cement by road to Nelson, or by rail to Christchurch.

More recently, it moved entirely to the Nelson route and was importing to different ports.

Meanwhile, Buller Mayor Martin Sawyers said nature had swept away the troublesome sand bar.

"We're going to keep on dredging, but are reasonably confident it's not going to be a long term problem," he said.

"It was a one off, with the climatic conditions."

Experts said coastal drift carried sediment to the harbour mouth, which would normally be pushed out to sea by the flow from the Buller River.

But, an unseasonably dry autumn reduced flows in the river and saw the bar build up.

Mr Sawyers said the port was still looking at whether its dredging needed modified.

- nzpa